Evergreen Park edges out Richards

A certain pressure comes from winning a conference title five years in a row.

For Evergreen Park, the Mustangs welcome the challenge.

“It’s a little nerve-racking to have, but I think that’s what pushes us even more,” Evergreen Park’s Kerry Symanski said. “To have that sort of competition Richards give us, that’s the push we need and the drive to overcome.”

In both teams’ regular-season finale before the conference meet, Evergreen Park defeated Richards 92-88 in a South Suburban Red dual meet Thursday, exacting some revenge for Richards’ win at the Evergreen Park Invitational in September.

Richards had eight first-place finishers Thursday to Evergreen Park’s four, but the Mustangs’ depth ended up being the deciding factor.

“This win is fantastic. It’s huge for us right now,” Symanski said. “We started off the season kind of iffy on what we were going to do (as a team). We’ve overcome all those obstacles, and we’re super-pumped for next week.”

The South Suburban Red meet will be held Oct. 28 and 29 at Shepard.

Winners for Evergreen Park included Victoria Lambton in the 50-yard freestyle (26.59 seconds) and the 100 free (59.20), Rachel Koronkiewicz in the 100 breaststroke (1 minute, 18.97 seconds), and the 200 free relay team (1:52.70) including Symanski, Koronkiewicz, Lambton and Alyssa Burns.

Host Richards had first-place finishers in Becca Dunterman in the 200 free (2:23.50) and 500 free (6:25.61), Julia Coti in the 200 individual medley (2:25.50) and 100 backstroke (1:03.94), Chris Dvoracek in the 100 butterfly (1:11.07), the 200 medley relay (2:05.92) including Dvoracek, Coti, Michelle Jozefowicz and Molly Pohrebny, and the 400 free relay (4:08.77) that included Dvoracek, Coti, Jozefowicz and Emily Wetzel.

With a week off before the conference meet, Richards coach Joel Staszewski thinks Thursday’s meet will provide some motivation for the Bulldogs.

“We know it’s going to be competitive,” Staszewski said. “This might be that last push to conference, a nice little wakeup call because it was close.”

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.